How to select "sample translation" texts for profile? (Copyright aspect) Thread poster: Ricki Farn
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Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 02:29
English to German
Dear colleagues,
how do you select the source texts to use for "sample translations" in your profile? My thoughts so far:
- I'm not sure I can just take any text off any website I like, let's say the homepage of my favorite chocolate manufacturer, because they have a copyright to their texts and they might not want me to use them for my personal self-marketing.
- I also don't think it would be a good idea to use a part of an actual paid translation I've done for a... See more Dear colleagues,
how do you select the source texts to use for "sample translations" in your profile? My thoughts so far:
- I'm not sure I can just take any text off any website I like, let's say the homepage of my favorite chocolate manufacturer, because they have a copyright to their texts and they might not want me to use them for my personal self-marketing.
- I also don't think it would be a good idea to use a part of an actual paid translation I've done for a customer, because that would probably violate an NDA - and also because many of my translations are not published "as is", but can be found on the web with edits that I'm not always happy with.
- I'm not even sure I could just grab some text by and about ProZ right off this website, because it would still be me copying it into my portfolio, and not the copyright holder.
- The only kind of text I've thought of so far that might work is something under Creative Commons, such as a Wikipedia article (citing their CC statement), or something from an out-of-copyright book on Project Gutenberg. The problem here is that I can't think of any such text that is representative of the text types I usually translate.
How have you solved this issue?
Kind regards,
Ricki ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Creative Commons search | Jan 4, 2017 |
Hi Rikki,
I'd suggest looking for blog posts on topics relevant to your services and published under one of the Creative Commons licenses that permit reuse for commercial purposes. These include, for example, Attribution (CC BY) and Attr... See more Hi Rikki,
I'd suggest looking for blog posts on topics relevant to your services and published under one of the Creative Commons licenses that permit reuse for commercial purposes. These include, for example, Attribution (CC BY) and Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA):
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
One way to find texts with these licenses is to use the special Google search form on the Creative Commons site:
https://search.creativecommons.org/
Up at the top, there is a check box where you can choose to limit the search to items that can be used for commercial purposes. You can then search for key words that relate to your specializations. Sometimes the licensing information is not correct, so it's useful to check that.
It can take some time to find texts that seem suitable, but it is possible. For example, I found all the texts for the sample translations I've posted on my website with this method:
https://jhollandtranslations.com/en/examples.html#samples
[Edited at 2017-01-04 17:50 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Michael Beijer 
United Kingdom
Local time: 01:29
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
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| copy from somewhere, and then change it | Jan 4, 2017 |
Ricki Farn wrote:
Dear colleagues,
how do you select the source texts to use for "sample translations" in your profile? My thoughts so far:
- I'm not sure I can just take any text off any website I like, let's say the homepage of my favorite chocolate manufacturer, because they have a copyright to their texts and they might not want me to use them for my personal self-marketing.
- I also don't think it would be a good idea to use a part of an actual paid translation I've done for a customer, because that would probably violate an NDA - and also because many of my translations are not published "as is", but can be found on the web with edits that I'm not always happy with.
- I'm not even sure I could just grab some text by and about ProZ right off this website, because it would still be me copying it into my portfolio, and not the copyright holder.
- The only kind of text I've thought of so far that might work is something under Creative Commons, such as a Wikipedia article (citing their CC statement), or something from an out-of-copyright book on Project Gutenberg. The problem here is that I can't think of any such text that is representative of the text types I usually translate.
How have you solved this issue?
Kind regards,
Ricki
Hi Ricki,
I'd suggest the following: take something from a website, and then change it (so that it can't be traced back to the original source).
Michael
| | | | Daniel Frisano
Italy
Local time: 02:29
Member (2008)
English to Italian
+ ...
| Which kind of texts? | Jan 4, 2017 |
Marketing? Legal? Technical? Academic?
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Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 02:29
English to German
TOPIC STARTER | Thank you so far | Jan 4, 2017 |
Hi John, thank you, sounds great. I'll try that.
Hi Michael, thank you too, but I'm not sure I can do that - English is not my native language, and if I tried to change an English text beyond recognition, it would certainly sound German enough to be unconvincing (and still be iffy copyright-wise).
Hi Daniel, in my case IT marketing and thereabouts, but I can't be the only person with this question?
 ... See more Hi John, thank you, sounds great. I'll try that.
Hi Michael, thank you too, but I'm not sure I can do that - English is not my native language, and if I tried to change an English text beyond recognition, it would certainly sound German enough to be unconvincing (and still be iffy copyright-wise).
Hi Daniel, in my case IT marketing and thereabouts, but I can't be the only person with this question?
Ricki ▲ Collapse
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Surely you could use any translation you've done that is in the public domain?
| | | | Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 02:29
English to German
TOPIC STARTER | Public Domain | Jan 4, 2017 |
Chris, that could maybe work for a literary translator who is listed in the imprint of a novel along with the author. As a technical translator, I have to be anonymous. If I included a text in my profile that enabled people to figure out that I have translated part of the website of Company X, I'd be in breach of a contract or several. So even if a text is publicly accessible, I can't say "hey, that one is mine".
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Ricki Farn wrote:
Chris, that could maybe work for a literary translator who is listed in the imprint of a novel along with the author. As a technical translator, I have to be anonymous. If I included a text in my profile that enabled people to figure out that I have translated part of the website of Company X, I'd be in breach of a contract or several. So even if a text is publicly accessible, I can't say "hey, that one is mine".
I'm not convinced any translation agency will be trawling through ProZ profiles to check these things, but blank out Company X's name and you'll surely be fine.
(Personally I take the view that my translations are mine, whatever the law might say...)
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| Agree with Chris S. | Jan 4, 2017 |
I don't think it's worth worrying about. You have the copyright to your translations unless you've assigned it to someone else. You mention chocolate - I actually have a text on this subject as one of the samples on my ProZ profile, and I haven't even bothered to censor the manufacturer's name.
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